Machine for coating, printing, and drying tubular containers



May 224, 1956 M. BIDDULPH 2,746,421

MACHINE FOR coATING, PRINTING AND DRYING TUBULAR CONTAINERS Filed'Aug. 7, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 M. BIDDULPH May 22, 1956 MCHINE FOR COATING, PRINTING AND DRYING TUBULAR CONTAINERS Filed Aug. 7, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Inv ell/iol@ NJ? M.EDDULPH May 22, 1956 MACHINE FOR COATING, PRINTING AND DRYING TUBULAR CONTAINERS Filed Aug. 7, 1952 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 lao @z2/tol `2",74`6,41'm MACHINE FOR COATING, PRINTING, AND DRYING TUBULAR CONTAINERS Maurice Biddulph, Pendleton, Salford, England, assigner to Universal Metal Products Limited, Pendleton, Salford, Lancashire, England, a British company Application August 7, 1952, Serial No. 303,054

s claims. (ci. 11s-46) in the trade to have a separate machine for each ,of these operations. All the above 'operations `are performed on the tube whilst it is held on a mandrel and it will be readily seen that in order to finish the tube completely `it `is necessary to feed it and remove it from a mandrel up to 6 times.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a simplied but elfective means for carrying out all or several of the above operations. r According to the invention, a series of operations are performed on a tube while it is mounted. on a mandrel,

on which it is moved and presented to the various operations in turn.

This may be achieved by joining together a series of arbors, which are designed to hold the necessary mandrels, in the form of a continuous chain and mounting this chain so as to travel, preferably horizontally, between a printing machine and an enamelling machine. The horizontal portions of the chain, both on the top and bottom strands can be fitted with devices to carry out operations on a tube as required and by allowing the chain to run throughl an oven which may be heated by means of infra-red equipment and making the chain a suitable length, it s possible to dry the tube after enamelling to a suitable condition for printing on one strand of the chain and after printing to fully dry the tube upon its return on the other strand.

Referring to the accompanying explanatory drawings:

Figure l is a side elevation of a machine according to the invention for coating, printing` and stoving collapsible tubes.

YFigure 2 is a side elevation showing the arrangement of the tube coating means. v

Figure 3 is an end view of the coating means.

Figure 4 shows a fragmentary section taken at 4-4 of Figure l. 1

The tubes to be operated upon are placed over hollow mandrels 1 carried by hollow arbors 2 which are joined together by links 3 to form a continuous chain. This chain travels round an intermittently rotating chain wheel 4 at one end of the machine whereby the tubes on the mandrels are brought into contact with a roller 5 for applying enamel or other coating material, and v'round a chain wheel 6 at the other end of the machine which brings the tubes into contact with a printing roller 7 for printing whatever is required on to the coated tube. Between the wheels 4 and 6 the chain travels in both directions inside casings 8, 8a in which -there are infra-red heating means, which partially dry the coating on a tube before it reaches the printing roller 7, and completes the drying ofthecoating andprintingtn .the-.return journey i through the casing 8a.

There are upper and;1ower'guides"9"10for the chain irisideahtaiovencasings...8,..8a. and:A alongside casini-.guide there a; V1J. which. engagesasprockets dal ons .the arbors 2 so as to cause the mandrels 1 carrying the tubes to rotate while travelling through the casings, in order to ensure uniform drying. As a iinished tube emerges from the casing 8a, the chain stops with the arbor oppo- `site a compressed air nozzle 13 as seen in Fig. 4 ofthe v drawing, and the means for driving the chain wheel 4 opens a valve to admit a jet of air which blows the tube Another tube is then placed oi the hollow mandrel. on the mandrel.

The machine is driven by a motor which turns a shaft 14 which drives the printing mechanism and carries a sprocket 15 for driving ahelical gear lmeshing with a gear 17 on a shaft 18 which extends to the other end of the machine where `it has a helical gear 19 driving a gear 20. The gear 20 is fixed on a shaft 21 which carries a crank 22 imparting reciprocatory-motion to a connecting rod 23 pivoted at itsv other end to an arm 24 mounted to turn about the axis of the chain Wheel 4 and carrying a pawl 25 engaging a ratchet wheel 26 conmay be interrupted if necessary, a pedal 27 s provided which raises a rod 28 and turns an arm 29 to lift the pawl 25 clear of the ratchet teeth by means of a pin 30 on the pawl.

The coating mechanism, as shown in Figure 3, is sep arately driven by a chain drive vto a sprocket 31 on a shaft 32, which if necessary may be rotated by a hand wheel 33. The shaft 32 carries gear wheels 34, 35 of which 34 meshes with a gear wheel 36 to drive a sprocket 37, while the other meshes with a wheel 38 to drive a sprocket 39. The latter drives a sprocket 40 `on the shaft of the coating roller 5 and a gear wheel 42 on the same shaft drives an intermediate roller 43, from which a roller 44 dipping in an enamel bath 45 is driven in a similar manner. A sprocket 46 is provided for tensioning the chain between sprockets 39 and 40.

From the sprocket 37 a chain runs over an idler sprocket 47 and engages the sprockets 12 on the chain carrying the tubes so as to rotate the tubes. The positions of the variou'srollers are adjusted by hand wheels so that the coating roller 5 touches the tubes as they are carried' l. A machine for performing "printing and coating op-Y erations on collapsible tubes, `comprising tube coating means, tube printing means, a drying oven casing, a series of horizontal mandrels, a series of horizontal arbors ar,

ranged to hold the mandrels and said arbors being joined `togetherin the form of a continuous chain, and indexing means for the chain to bring tubes mounted on the mandrels into contact with the coating and printing means and to carry the tubes through the drying oven casing. 2. A machine as claimed in claim 1, in which the l arbors or mandrels carry sprockets which engage moving chains to rotate the mandrels during the coating and stationary chains during the drying operation.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1, `in which the arbors and mandrels are hollow, and after a tube has bee dried its abor is indexed to a position opposite a nozzlewhich directs a jet of compressed air into the mandrel to blow the tube off.

920,870 .Hodgman May 4, 1909 s 1,910,713 Prussing ..-4 lMay 23, 1933 Alvey etal Feb. 20, 1934 Friden May 24, 1938 Frden ...1 July 7, 1942 Gammeter Aug. 18, 1942 Cozzoli Aug. 7, 1945 Belk Aug. 22, 1950 Lehmann Oct. 23, 1951 

